


From The Underground, Again

by JAMjessie



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:36:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23406133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JAMjessie/pseuds/JAMjessie
Summary: This is a test run of an Original Work I've written. It is very loose, but I have multiple chapters written with many characters implemented.What happens when an ancient demon, who was captured and buried for centuries, is finally freed in the modern world?





	From The Underground, Again

In the ancient years, when the earth was still fresh and new, Zane was one of the first Demons to set foot on the sacred soil. Ever since then, he wandered the lands, causing mayhem and murder among families, friends and enemies. Zane grew in power as humans grew in numbers, he fed off fear, lived to spill blood and loved his deceitful ways. His destruction slowly twisted into a subtler art, occasionally lashing out and causing multiple causalities, but he eventually pleased himself with setting humans up to tear themselves apart. 

By the time the thought of traveling across the seas started to develop among the humans, Zane found himself being hunted. Unfortunately for him, he was not aware of this danger until it was too late. He had been too careless and was lured into a trap that a group of priests had concocted. It all happened so fast, he was trapped in a spell, blessed chains wrapped around him in an unfriendly grip and he was kicked into a coffin. The coffin was prayed over, sealing him inside for all eternity and buried deep in the dirt that he once walked. 

Over the centuries, the secret group of priests handed down the heavily guarded whisper of Zane and he would be transferred into a new coffin with fresh prayer every hundred years. Initially, he had fought every time he was dug up, but soon he felt his coffin being placed inside a heavily guarded tomb. The priests no longer needed to move him from coffin to coffin, they only need pray over the box he lay in now.

This went on for what seemed like forever, until the prayers soon died, the name Zane was forgotten with history and the tomb was left undisturbed. With no one to pray and no one to set him free, he was stuck. The demon could only lay in the darkness and stare into the void until some unsuspecting archaeologist stumbled upon his tomb.

After countless years of being locked away from the world, the ancient demon had all but given up hope of ever escaping the coffin. It was ironic really, being locked away in such a box and truly wishing he could perish, but never could. While in one of his almost trance like slumbers, something caught his attention. 

At first, he brushed the sound off as his overly active imagination torturing him once again, but when the sound came again, he perked up and strained to listen. It was a terrible grinding sound that soon screeched and made Zane's sensitive ears ache. It sounded as if someone was breaking their way into the tomb, no, multiple someone's. After an hour of grinding a thundering crash echoed around the room as they apparently made headway. Zane tensed, wondering who could be infiltrating the ancient tomb and why. No one knew of it as far as Zane was aware, since the visits from the priests had ceased.

After a few long moments Zane began to hear voices. Men's voices. They called out to one another in a new language, but the demon was able to understand them immediately. They were calling out that there was a coffin and to bring in some bolt cutters. The very thought made the demon grin, perhaps this would be his lucky day. The heavy snap of chains a few minutes later told him that he would soon be free, and his claws were hungry to reap havoc on these poor men. Zane had thousands of years of anger to let out and he was ready to let these explorers take the brunt of it. 

The lid to the coffin was jammed hard and with the use of crowbars it was finally popped free. Zane, knowing they would be too curious to leave him as he was, closed his eyes and lay perfectly still. His ashen body was odd for them no doubt, as was the horns that protruded from the top of his head. He wore a filthy set of leathers that had been common when he had walked among men, and more heavy chains cascaded around his body. 

There was an exclamation of the finding and hushed whispers before one man approached with the bolt cutters. Someone from the back called out a warning, but it didn't stop the man from cutting the chains of the seemingly fake body. Oh, how wrong he was.

As soon as the chains fell away from him, Zane's brilliant green eyes opened and focused on the man standing above him with the metal cutters. The man only had time to gasp and his eyes to widen in horror before Zane's clawed hand ripped out his throat. Blood poured freely as he tossed the body and launched himself out of the coffin. There were about ten men in the room, each as equally horrified and shocked as the first, too stunned to do any more than stumble over themselves to escape. Their attempts were futile as Zane practically flew across the space to snap another man’s neck, his body not even hitting the ground before the next explorer joined him in death. It was bloody, brutal and fast, each man’s body being torn to shreds or broken as if they were porcelain dolls. They crumpled in a pile and fell to pieces at his wrath. It was all over in a matter of a minute, the once empty tomb now housing the truly dead. Blood splattered the walls and limbs were scattered along the ground. 

Not even breathing heavily, but grinning like a madman, Zane paused to admire his handiwork and breathe in the stench of fresh blood. It was a smell he had missed greatly. He examined one of the man’s faces that hadn't been too horribly maimed and hummed in amusement. So, this is what the humans looked like now. Stretching out the stiffness in his joints, he was able to easily focus his power into his appearance. As long as he maintained a slight concentration on the mirage, he could make himself look just like one of the humans. He did so now, his ashen skin changing to a tanned flesh, his horns retreating and his face cleansing itself to have only a goatee. Pleased with that, he stepped over the remains of the explorers to leave the tomb and face the dark, cool night of the world once again.

Zane was pleasantly surprised to find out that his tomb wasn't too far off from civilization. He could have easily made the trip in minutes with his speed, but he wanted to stretch his legs more, breath in the fresh air and hear the sounds he didn't even know he missed. Eventually he came across a trail with a sign posted, showing him that his unmarked tomb was buried in a park of sorts. Backbone trail was the name across the sign, making him lift an amused brow. The humans were very creative with their names, he wondered what else had changed since he had been locked away. 

The demon followed the trail until he spotted lights ahead, many, many lights. It was an odd sight, one that made him move a bit faster and stare in almost amazement. This was certainly different. He headed down, the trail turning into a sidewalk at one point, and watched as vehicles drove by him. One after another they came, motorized and large. Humans were piled in, some giving him strange looks as they did so. Perhaps it was his clothes that caused the looks, none of them were dressed in the same fashion. 

Deciding to remedy that, Zane stepped out in front of another vehicle, fully expecting it to stop for him. Instead, it slammed into his body full force with a tremendous crash and a loud horn. The impact hurt, but didn't cause too much harm to him, he was more surprised than anything as he picked himself off the pavement some twenty feet away from the wrecked car. The people inside were dazed, a man and a woman. They looked young and fresh. Zane walked over to the car and grabbed hold of the door to give it a yank, ripping the metal apart to get to the man. 

"Apologies, friend. I need these more than you now." Zane smirked at the body of the broken man as he fixed the collar of his new button up. The man had been wearing jeans and a blue button up with a grey shirt underneath. Zane had ended his suffering quickly and stripped him of his clothing and dignity. He tossed his old leathers to the pavement and peered in at the woman who seemed dazed and confused. 

Zane knew he didn't want a repetition of the past and even though he wasn't aware of the lack of priests in today's age, he wouldn't risk it any more than he needed to. Reaching across the body of the man, he grabbed the woman by the throat and squeezed his hand, feeling the crack and crunch of her windpipe snapping. She was dead within a couple minutes and Zane was back on his way down the street and heading towards the heart of the city. He would have to be more careful from now on. Blend in more, get to know this changing society of humans and cause suffering in a subtler way than the past.

About an hour after Zane had his first, literal, run in with a vehicle, the demon found himself deep within the city. At first his senses had been overwhelmed and he was forced to retreat into a dark alley to calm himself. The multitude of sounds coming from every direction, dogs barking, laughter, sirens and thumping music all gave Zane an unholy headache. Not to mention the amount of smells that assaulted his nose and made him feel like he would never smell something properly again. The lights were no better, bright and bold against the night, he wondered if the humans even needed the sun with this power they wielded so carelessly. It took him a bit, but he was slowly adjusting to this new life. Thousands of years in a box did that to someone.


End file.
